Hi Myc and Steve,
i think that i am one of the "old timers" and i love this 555 timer, too.
i made a simple solar engine with the cmos version. the trigger voltage is
about 2.6 V.
the current during loading is about 60µA or less.
have fun
manfred
BTW: Wilf, your flasher is hard to beat :-) ! great.